Monday, 30 September 2013

Thank you for sticking with me this lovely September while I joined Jenni in her awesome idea of Blogtember :) Here is to the last post: "Monday, September 30: Share a photo of something old. Maybe
something that has personal history for you, that was passed down to
you, and that has special meaning to you. Tell us about it and why it's
special."

I wondered for a long time what to write and to show on this subject... I wish I would have something terribly old and something that would WOW! you all but all I can share that is really old is memories. The oldest things I own and that I keep with me wherever I move (and that I brought with me, here, in Poland) are a picture of my grandparents from a place in the mountains, where we used to go each year for holidays - Sovata :) I love this picture very much and even though I have another picture of them and my mother I need to see them both hanging on my wall each day. When I look at them I see how time passed yet somehow my Granny and Grandfather did not change.

The picture was taken the year I was born - in 1986 - in July - just a day after my sisters birthday :) I always loved how my Granny dresses up. She almost never weares pants and she prefers dresses and 2 piece sets with colors that would match her. She is always chic and loves to wear a good perfume and matches the bag with the shoes. When she was younger she had red hair and she kept it like that for a long while after it started to turn white - yes! I know! It was my fault for stressing her... I admit! I was quite a pain in the arse and I still am - even my fiancee admits it ;) My Grandfather is an awesome person and he is the one who brought the economical skills flowing through my veins. He is an accountant and he let me "play" and add his columns of data when I was small. I know it is weird but I loved seeing them add up and seeing that my Grandpa was proud :)

Another beloved treasure of mine (and my sisters, but I secretly stole it away last time I was home ;p) are the 4 comic books with Asterix and Obelix. My fiancee is a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE fan of A&O and even has a plan of a tattoo with them - he knows where but not when... but he is thinking about that most of the time :) I heard that tattoos can be addictive so he already has one so he wants more now :) But back to my comic books... I loved Asterix and Obelix since I was small :) and also Panoramic (the druid) and Idefix (the cute small little white-black doggie that Obelix decides to adopt) and Caesar (who is always under despair by the gauls yet they get him out of a lot of trouble!) and Cacofonix (the no-voice bard who has a lot of ideas on writing songs but unfortunately he cannot perform them as he lacks the talent... and somehow, at the end of each comic book, when they have the great feast when A&O come victorious back from their journeys, he end up tied up to a tree or God knows what! with his mouth shut... Poor thing :( he always made me sad!) and The Chief of the Gauls (that was very brave yet it had one great fear: that the sky will fall on their heads...)... Oh! I loved them! My Mum and Dad bought these comics for me and my sister when we were really small and we barely learned how to read. I remember how each comic book looked so very huge and the story seemed endless and it was full of fun and adventure!

My fav book was and always will be "Asterix and Cleopatra", It is the most worn out book out of my collection yet it never ceases to amaze me. Even by looking at it my face just turns into a huge grin. On the cover it writes (the comic books from Mum and Dad were in Romanian so we could learn how to read...): 'The greatest story ever drawn: 14
litres of Indian ink, 30 brushes, 62 pencils, 1 hard pencil, 27 erasers, 1984
sheets of paper, 16 typewriter ribbons, 2 typewriters, 366 pints of beer went
into its creation!' This parody of the breathless publicity for Elizabeth Taylor's
outing as Cleopatra sets the tone of exuberant satire and silliness for
the story. But just imagine the look on our small little faces when we were reading that! 366 pints of beer!? 67 litres of beer?! WOW!

Anyway... just to see how huge fans me and my fiancee are... I started to make the A&O collection bigger by buying the comics now in Polish language - we have 4 of them now :) 4 Romanian vs 4 Polish - and guess what?! I bought the "Asterix and Cleopatra" in Polish :) Also we have the 6 DVD's with the cartoons made from the comics :) The comics and the DVDs were gifts to my fiancee at the early stages of our relationship :p from one fan to another :)

Well... that is how we roll... what can I say? :p

Hope to see you again here tomorrow, as we just finished the Blogtember but we have not finished the blog :p so stick around for more of me and my awesome other half :) Kisses and hugs !!!

Sunday, 29 September 2013

Queen Elizabeth I’s secret locket ring. It wasn’t discovered
until her death that the ring opened up to reveal two portraits of her
and her mother Queen Anne Boleyn.

The secrets of this beautiful locket ring were
not discovered until it was removed from Elizabeth I’s finger after she
died in 1603. The mother-of-pearl ring with rubies in the band and
diamonds on the facade was hiding two miniature enamel portraits, one of
Elizabeth herself and the other believed to be her mother, Anne Boleyn,
who was beheaded when Elizabeth was just two years old.

At 175 millimeters across, the delicate
ring is often known as ‘Chequers ring’ and today belongs to the Trustees
of Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence. Every once in a
while, it goes on display at a special exhibition. The ring tells us
that Elizabeth, although she barely knew her mother, thought of her
privately and treasured her memory.

408 years after Elizabeth’s death, mother and daughter are still together.

Saturday, 28 September 2013

Almost 2 weeks ago I was thinking of movies I love and I would re-watch constantly. One of the movies that came into my mind was Amelie, Coco Avant Chanel and A Very Long Engagement - and guess what?! All of them have one red string connecting them: Audrey Tautou! :)

But why do we love Audrey? What makes her so lovable for the audience that meets her?

Well sincerely I have fallen in love with her the first time I saw her in Amelie - I loved her little things, her little pleasures in which I found myself :) Including cracking with the teaspoon the surface of a creme brulee...

Come on! Who hasn't as a small child put fruits on top of their fingers and ate them one by one!?

Audrey is the kind of quiet and sweet child-like face lady who you immediately fall in love with.

Let me do just a short list on that:

She is French

She won the hearts of million people worldwide only with the movie Amelie

She made us fall in love with her again on A Very Long Engagement and made us thirst for more of her on the big screen

We loved her pairing with Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code

She made an extremely convincing Coco Chanel in the movie Coco Avant Chanel

Because she will always love a surprise instead of a boring and dull life (“I never want to do the same things twice. I like surprises.”)

She takes pictures of each reporter who interviews her and keeps them in a scrapbook... well... tell me the truth, does that not sound like a thing Amelie would do? :) She was a perfect cast for the movie!

She respects her homeland - Tautou once said “I am, at the end of the day, a French actress. I am
not saying I will never shoot an English-language movie again, but my
home, my community, my career is rooted in France. I would never move to
Los Angeles.”

Audrey is very well educated and besides french, her mother language, she speaks perfect German and English :)

Over the years, she has also been very successful in the world of
modeling appearing as the face of global brands like “Marie Claire” and
“Vogue"

One of her favourite authors are Victor Hugo and Oscar Wilde - what can I say?! The lady has taste!

She puts her family first! Although invited, she did not attend the private screening of
Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001) organized and attended by
President Jacques Chirac. She had a previous engagement with her
brother. Btw in case you did not know, she is the eldest of the 4 family members :) She has a brother and 2 sisters...

Favourite music composers are Ravel, Mozart and Frédéric Chopin. Can you imagine THAT?! the lady loves Chopin - the Polish amazing composer <3

She said that Meryl Streep, Paul Newman, Juliette Lewis, Jodie Foster and Julianne Moore are her idols. Need I say more?! Those are one of my fav actors and hers too! So meant to be! The fact that she recognizes true talent makes her earn extra points ;)

And I do believe the list could go on :) She is just to adorable not to love and once you see a movie with her you will ask for more! And I - as a french movie lover - cannot get enough of it! :) She is intoxicating and I admit it - hand raised to my heart...

Friday, 27 September 2013

The end of Blogtember is coming fast and with certain steps... and so is Autumn... so let us sit tight and feel comfortable as it is Friday and weekens is coming... Topic of the day: "Friday, September 27: An anonymous letter to your Facebook friends. Be as snarky as you'd like. (but don't include people's real names.) " so... let us begin!

Dearest friends present on Facebook,

Yes! You over 1000 people roaming around my profile like vultures or just occasionally sneaking in as you are very afraid of this powerful tool and not to mention the Internet! I am proud and happy to have you here... people from numerous fields and domains of activity... people from different countries and different continents... people I truly admire, people I truly love and people who I have been acquainted and still have contact nonetheless if we are miles apart :) Thank you for being here with me when I joined FB somewhere in 2007, when I had the trip/holiday/work of my life, when I went to the USA...

I am happy I got to meet you all - in different circumstances and in different points in my life. Each of you is important to me and your friendship is very important to me. So... I guess what I am trying to say is... Thank You! Thank you for sticking with me and liking my picture and sharing my posts and pictures and songs and commenting on my updates :) It means a lot to me to know that you are still alive and kicking out there :p

I am glad my family is on FB here with me: Mum, Dad, Sister, Aunts and Cousins :) I would like to also specially thank my best friends - yes, they know who they are and I have no need of pointing fingers or giving names :)

Thank you "My Other Pea In The Pod" :* Thank you for being there. I miss you terribly and we do not get to speak to each-other often but I think about you a lot and I haunt your FB to see your updates :* I wish you would come visit me again so we could go out for a movie or a cup of coffee and have a huge portion of laughter :) I know you are not that far away but it seems I cannot get to you :* But remember I love you and I am proud of you and what you have achieved :*

My dearest and sweetest "biaces" I miss you all 4 a lot and I wish you all gals would visit me... somehow I manage to get to see you on Skype or on FB or email you and some of you I still got to see this year and last year but I surely miss being together, the 5 of us again :)You are all so different and yet so precious to me. You all have very artistic sides yet you can also be very down to earth. It was an honor and a pleasure to meet you all and spend time with you :*

Oh... dear me... I would love to write something about everyone in person but that would lead into a very long blog post and either way I prefer to say these things in person... so... without further ado, I bid you a very awesome/nice/quiet/special day :) You choose the option you prefer and YOU make your day! :*

Thursday, 26 September 2013

Guess what?! I just realized that in a month I have my birthday! :o
But nevermind that, today we have a tough one: "Thursday, September 26: Go to a coffee shop. Order a favorite
drink. Write about what makes you happy and what makes you sad. Or write
about anything you'd like! Bonus points for including a photo from the
coffee shop. (I recommend downloading Ommwriter and bringing headphones along!) *if you can't make it to a coffee shop, at least leave your usual space and write someplace new."

Well... guess what?! I am going to break this rule and I will not be in a coffee shop. Instead I will do something I never did before, and I will write while I am at work. No worries, I will not cheat the system, I will just use the hour of break that I have and try to be short and to the subject ;) Instead of my fav drink I will just have a glass of water or a cup of tea and try to focus on the things that make me happy vs. the things that make me sad... oh! in both cases that is quite a list so I really need to stay sharp and short :p

In Chinese culture, Yin and Yang represent the two opposite principles
in nature. Yin characterizes the feminine or negative nature of things
and yang stands for the masculine or positive side. Yin and yang are in
pairs, such as the moon and the sun, female and male, dark and bright,
cold and hot, passive and active, etc. But yin and yang are not static
or just two separated things. The nature of yinyang lies in interchange
and interplay of the two components. The alternation of day and night is
such an example.

That is what we should talk about today: our yin & yang, our positive & negative, our happyness & sadness... as it never comes one without the other...

It makes me happy and it makes me feel like I reached my happy place and I feel like a bumblebee due to the fact that me and my awesome fiancee will soon be getting married. I am happy that I am engaged with him and that he truly loves me and respects him, as I also do him. I am happy that we have the same views in long term life even though we are such 2 different personalities. I am happy that he found me and that I opened my eyes to see what we could become. I am happy that we managed to work out our differences and that we are together after 2 years :) I am happy that we found the perfect wedding rings and I am extremely happy that he is next to me :)

I am sad that the world has so much bureaucracy in it and getting married inside EU means going back and forward between embassies and consulates and tax offices and so on... I am sad people still think Romania is a 3rd World country and - as I usually like to make fun... - say that "we live in trees and we eat bananas"... I am sad I do not get to see my friends as often as I would like and I am sad I do not get to travel as often and as far/wild/exotic as I would wish... I am sad I do not get to see my family each day and I am sorry I am such a pain in the arse... I do love them from the bottom of my heart and I wish I could be with them but this is the path I have chosen and I love where I am, and I am thankful for the lessons I am learning each day... as hard as it may sound and as much as I would cry from time to time and feel scared I am also brave and I know that I will make it through....

Wednesday, 25 September 2013

Today we will talk about: "Wednesday, September 25: Write about a time you screwed up - a mistake you made."

I dare not point a finger at any mistake I made as they were many and I see them as mistakes for just a moment. then I forget or I put them aside and think of them as opportunities. We all make mistakes and sometimes I think like I am the mother of all mistakes. But it is my life and my life choices define me and help me grow - you may say I made a good or a bad thing, that I made a mistake but the thing you consider as a mistake may not be an issue or a problem for me.

If I would begin to write about the mistakes I made I would write volumes, but what is the point?! Mistakes are a part of yourself and everyone does them - even on a daily basis. Some are big, some are small and you may consider them as insignificant but they modify you nonetheless and make you a better person (or worst... but hey! Everything is relative and subjective!)

So instead of a mistake I made - you know, like spilling the milk and stuff like that - I will leave you with some quotes that I really love on the subject ;)

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.George Bernard Shaw

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.Oscar Wilde

You
build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the
past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it.
You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of
your space.Johnny Cash

Most
people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is
too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.Oscar Wilde

So do tell me... Are YOU afraid of your mistakes? Or are you proud of them and consider them as precious experiences?

Tuesday, 24 September 2013

Just 5 more posts and Blogtember will come to an end... I will be sad as this was an awesome journey to take. Here is today's topic: "Tuesday, September 24: Review a book, place, or product."

I was thinking about what to speak of in this blog since almost 2 weeks ago... So many options... so many possibilities... but I choose to go with reviewing a movie. A movie I love and a movie I would like to share with everyone who has eyes to see the beauty in it. Due to that I also introduced another page in my blog: "Movies LadyBug Enjoys" - I will try to review movies I like and link them there :) "Bright Star" will open the list as it deserves it... so... here we are... brace yourself as this shall be a long one ;)))

About "Bright Star" - 2009

Bright Star is a 2009 film based on the last three years of the life of poet John Keats and his romantic relationship with Fanny Brawne. It stars Ben Whishaw as Keats and Abbie Cornish as Fanny. The movie is a British/Australian co-production that competed in the main competition at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, and was first shown to the public on 15 May 2009.The film's title is a reference to a sonnet by Keats named "Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art", which he wrote while he was with Brawne.

In addition to "Bright Star" several other poems are recited in the film, including "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" and "Ode to a Nightingale".
Both Campion and Whishaw completed extensive research in preparation
for the film. Many of the lines in the script are taken directly from
Keats' letters. Whishaw, as well, learned how to write with a quill and ink during
filming. The letters that Fanny Brawne receives from Keats in the film
were actually written by Whishaw in his own hand.

Bright Star is indeed a movie to behold! Even though it is relatively unknown people who appreciate art and love period movies will have watched it and listed as favorite. When the poet John Keats meets Fanny the inevitable happens and the 2 immediately connect. As much as we would love a happy end we will not have it, as Keats died young (at the age of 25) and alone...

The cast was originally and very well chosen and you can truly believe Ben Whishaw looks like how Keats must have looked - this very realistic dying youth look, troubled and yet very wise. Abbie Cornish makes the perfect match for Ben (whom you, of course, know from the movie "The Perfume") and she has a very wide emotion range - to be sure! from happiness to sadness to being curious about life and art to being so very UN-attracted of poems/sonnets and becoming after that a huge fan (after reading Endymion - It begins with the line "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever")...

I must admit that Fanny was a women of my liking! At the age of 16, when she first saw Keats, she was quite a feisty and fiery woman! She was sharp tongued and she already had her career path well stabilized. She was a woman of fashion and yet she knew nothing of poetry. She was artistic yet she knew nothing of the art that touched people souls and connected millions! She meets Keats and she is taken off guard by his poems and the way he thinks... she falls in love with his soul, his soul that she can feel through his poems yet she cannot fully understand it (being such a practical woman...). So she asks for help...

She asks for help from Keats so that he would teach her about poetry... She asks for help, when in fact the help is done mutually as they were perfect for one another... Keats brings so much in this relationship and we see him struggling with himself, with the love he has for poetry and for the act of creation VS. the love for Fanny, that in a way he does not know how to recognize and act upon... For Fanny all things come a bit more easy... Though Bright Star portrays her as the girl who has a
reputation for flirting and having an obsession with fashion (Beau
Brummel was her father’s cousin), Campion presents her as being very
much in love with Keats, a girl who, though finding his poetry
difficult, hangs on every word of his letters and becomes ill when he
does not write to her. Bright Star depicts Fanny as a daring young woman who refused to conform to convention, in love with a dying, penniless poet.

In Bright Star, Campion offers her own interpretation of the
nature of their romance, relying heavily on Andrew Motion’s 1997
biography of Keats. In this biography, Andrew Motion presents Fanny as
someone who was devoted to Keats, though Keats’ own ambivalence made it
difficult for her to express her feelings for him. After Keats’ death,
Fanny cropped her hair and wore mourning for three years, just as if
they had really been married, never taking off the ring he had given her
(Motion 568). She did eventually marry, but evidently rarely spoke of
her relationship with Keats. For many years after Keats’ death, most of
the admirers of his poetry were unaware of Fanny’s identity. Thirteen
years after her death in 1865, her family made public the letters that
Keats had written to her. Many of Keats’ admirers thought it was in bad
taste for Fanny to have even kept the letters, much less that her
family should allow them to be published. In 1937, Fanny’s letters to
Keats’ sister were published. In one letter she writes of her continued
feelings for Keats: “They think I have [forgotten him]. But I have
not got over it and never shall” (Motion 568). (Source can be found HERE)

The way the movie was filmed is just amazing - the combination of light and set, the colors, the texture, everything blends in perfectly and connects to the feelings Fanny and Keats are revealing us in each and every frame of the picture. The costumes are perfect and they are fitting for each scene and each person. You can see how much work they put in creating the perfect environment for the 2 lovers...

Just look at the pictures I attached on the post... look at this picture when they both are together on the bed - their clothes match and they blend in with the surrounding environment... like they are trying to hide away from the world, in their own little place, where their hearts can join... where he can recite to her poetry and where she understands his heart...

The way the movie is shot is beyond words for me... I wish I were Fanny and I would read Keats love letters... sitting by the window, covered by the flight of the butterflies, thinking I would like to be one...

As I said, the costumes are amazing, and Fanny's dresses and coats and hats are of her making, so you can see how young and talented she was... I dare say she was a girl ahead of her time, with modern views. Keats was though lost in his time... Yet! Somehow they managed to match... Who said that opposites attract was indeed right in their case...

Keats composing...

This dress is gorgeous but I would cut off the collar... That is too much of a statement for me...

I adored Fanny in this scene, when she disturbs Keats just to bring his the freshness from outside, from the world...

Adorable human beings... Just look at Keats with flowers in his hair...

I love this setting! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! Look at that flower field! Look at her dress! And she wears the hair as I usually wear mine! I could be her, could I not? :p I wish one day I will manage to have a picture taken like that... for me it looks so magical... and her reading his letter and sitting in the green grass and covered with blue flowers and looking at the clear blue sky is just a wonderful scene! (swooning...)

One of the movies wallpapers :) LOVE IT!!!

This scene is so soothing...

This is again one of my personal fav scenes in the movie... The light coming in the room, the curtain floating and Fanny all dressed up in that lovely creamy dress with the red-white overcoat (thingie...that I have no name for...) is just magical for me... You can actually feel the breeze on your skin and feel the bed she is laying on, the softness and the feeling of cool in the air, along with the thousand of wings fluttering by (from the butterflies she used to keep, as they were reminding her of him...)... It gives one a sense on peace somehow...

The butterflies...

But as butterflies live only one day, their love did not last long... Keats dies at a very young age (25 years old) and Fanny has to live on with her heart broken by her first true love...

Do see this movie, as it is totally worthwhile to watch! I bumped into it by mistake and I loved it so much that I bought the DVD so I would always have it available to re-watch. If you are a fan of period movies, of drama, and of documentaries, you will love it!

Monday, 23 September 2013

Here is what we have for today: "Monday, September 23: A "life lately" post. What you're up to, how you're feeling, how you're doing on your goals, etc. Bonus points for great photos!" - YES! That is right, one more Blogtember day, my friends ;)

Oh, come on! Are you interested about that? :S I would rather tell you about rainbows and unicorns and fairy dust... It is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more interesting. Or I could tell you about the meaning of life or about the 21 grams that make a difference!

Eh! Well... no one said anything so I shall carry on... Basically my live lately has been revolving around paperwork: paperwork for the wedding and paperwork for registering myself on Polish land. Yes! A lot of bureaucracy I may add... You would think that if Poland and Romania are part of the European Union they would be more aligned, but no! why would they?!

The first Friday of this month we went to Warsaw for a day. We went there not for pleasure or for fun - although we DID have that too ;) For the wedding in Poland you need multiple documents: like birth certificate of both, passport and ID's, filling out a bunch of papers and a magical document from the motherland that shows that you are not married there and that this is your first marriage... YES! Like I would marry someone in Romania and then also someone in Poland and lead a double life... (insert facepalm here!). Well you gotta do what you gotta do! In the beginning of the summertime - this year - we went to Romania and we got the paper there (do not get yourself fooled, there is a couple of more papers to fill in and taxes to pay to get it! OH! And did I mention that you need to wait almost a week?!). The issued paper is in Romanian language so we had to go to the Romanian Consulate and get issued a similar document from the Romanian Embassy but in Polish language - which we did... it takes almost 1 hour and a half to get it done, if you pay the emergency fee (50 euro - do not bring coins, just banknotes!) and it takes 2 or 3 working days if you choose the regular way... And with that paper you can carry on! So... we are one step closer...

In regards to the registering in Poland I had a shock! The over 2 years and a half I lived here, in Poland, in Krakow, do not matter unless I am registered. It does not matter that I payed 2 years of taxes, or that I have PESEL (personal identification number*) or that I pay 2 pension funds - do not even get me started with the health care! NOPE! No, my friends, that does not count! What you need to do is go to register ;) There are - of course - a bunch of papers you need: like ID, passport, birth certificate, HR document that shows that you have stable work in Poland and your contract from where you work (the one in Polish) and you need to fill in a form and bring it in 4 exemplars. You will apply for the residency and you will wait for almost a week - it is good to have someone next to you who speaks polish as you will have to leave a phone nb so they could call you when the paper is done. With that certified paper you can state that you entered Poland (YES! I entered Poland for the first time, after 2 years and a half...). What you need to do next is to CHECK IN! This process may be a bit hard... as you need to have someone willing to get you under their roof legally. You need the owner of the house/apartment to come with you - he also needs to bring the contract/papers on the house/apartment that states the places is his/hers in right - and you both need to sign a bunch of more papers... You also need to bring the paper that you are registered in Poland (you know...the one above...) and the ID's and the birth certificates and the passport. THAT is ALL! THANK GOD! I am glad I am past that and we can relax now and think only about the papers for the wedding...

Eh! but in the rest of the time things are perfectly normal and regular... Let us end this post on a brighter note! Work everyday, nice weekends with my fiancee and his family or with our friends :) Checking the blog stats and creating new posts for my friends abroad who are happy that now they know how I am - on a daily basis. Meeting new people, like Paulina from Color Me Brave :) I got paired randomly with her on the "September SMC Pairings" :) and she seems to be a sweetheart - I hope she will like the package I will do for her :) I am also making new friends here in Krakow with Marta :) she is from Krakow and she is quite gifted when it comes to taking pictures :) You can find some of here works HERE ;)

Here is one picture I really like - by her:

*PESEL (Polish Powszechny Elektroniczny System Ewidencji Ludności, Universal Electronic System for Registration of the Population) is the national identification number used in Poland since 1979. It always has 11 digits, identifies just one person and cannot be changed to another one.
The PESEL number is mandatory for all permanent residents of Poland
and for temporary residents living in Poland for over 2 months.
Applicants for Polish citizenship must request a PESEL number together
with their passport application.
The PESEL was the system designed by the communist government (during PRL)
to trace a personal information about every citizen. Itself is the
direct "child" of the previous system MAGISTER (called identically like
msc. studies degree in Poland), which was designed to trace and record
data about "most dangerous to system and communist power" people, which
basically as a danger was treated everyone with university degree.
It has the form of YYMMDDZZZXQ, where YYMMDD is the date of birth
(with century encoded in month field), ZZZ is the personal
identification number, X denotes sex (even number for females, odd
number for males) and Q is a control digit, which is used to verify
whether a given PESEL is correct or not.

P.S. I know I shall not get bonus points from Jenni as I do not have special photos :( Except the beauty from Beautygrafia... but that is none of my doing!

Sunday, 22 September 2013

It is always nice when one receives gifts :) At the beginning of this month my fiancee's brother came for a couple of with his girlfriend to visit us and visit Krakow. Of course they brought goodies from home - like the usual "stuff from mum": potatoes, cucumbers from the farm + some awesome salad in jars + delicious homemade marmalade. But this time we had additional stuff ;)))

My fiancee's friend from USA send him a letter with 5 really nice postcards from the area :) And the girlfriend of my fiancee's brother brought some sour cherry alcohol thingie from Austria ;) And his brother also brought some homemade liqueur made my fiancees mum - good stuff, really! We had guests and they agreed it was truly awesome indeed ;)

Here is the picture with postcards from Texas and Seattle also :)

We had a good time together and I am sorry we did not get to spend more time with them - it was during the week so we had to go to work as we have limited amount of vacation days... and the time we have we spend on documents and translations for the wedding... so at this point we can be quite hard to catch!

P.S. Excuse my military purse in the background of the lovely couple (my fiancee's brother and his girlfriend in a tender and funny moment)... I was totally tired and did not move my arse out of the chair as it was extremely comfortable... but you will agree that they are cute ;)

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them. ~Desmond Tutu

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family. ~Thomas Jefferson